I just saw this film for the first time since 1984 when it was released. The TV version was censored just a little. This film was cast in 1982 when I had a new actor's headshot photo studio in Manhattan. Things were slow, but when they cast Cotton Club they needed hundreds of people. My studio got very busy. One of my actors even had a small role; Vincent Gerosa played Cagney. It is dripping with talent. Especially the dancers, but the actors and musicians were great too. Richard Gere was the lead, and the weakest actor in the film. He got much better later in his career. He did play his own cornet, and did it surprisingly well. But it looked like a trumpet to me. The best line was from Julian Beck, of the Living Theater. "I didn't have a mother. They found me in a garbage can." The gangster Dutch Schultz, well played by James Remar, had a model J Duesenberg, one of the greatest cars ever made. Except the J wasn't made until 1929 and the film started a year or two earlier. The Duesie cost about $25,000. Only celebrities and the very wealthy could afford them. Gary Cooper and Clark Gable drove them. Today a good Duesenberg is worth up to $10,000,000. Extraordinary performances by Bob Hoskins, Fred Gwynne and Gregory Hines. Diane Lane was good in the film, but she was more attractive 15-20 years later. The Hines brothers played the Nicholas brothers, two great tap dancers of the era.